2013 F1 season

The 2013 German Grand Prix will take place on July 7th, one week after the British Grand Prix and the same weekend as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

A meeting of the World Motor Sport Council at Istanbul in Turkey confirmed a space has been left on the calendar for another race in Europe on July 21st, one week before the Hungarian Grand Prix.

This is expected to be a return to Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix. If the extra race goes ahead it will mean the 2013 calendar remains at 20 races as the Jersey Grand Prix is being postponed to 2014.

Paul Ricard and Magny-Cours have also been trying to return to the calendar as the host of the French Grand Prix. Red Bull have also mooted the possibility of holding a race in Austria at the Red Bull Ring (formerly the A1 Ring).

Right, because everyone who follows MotoGP also follows Formula 1, everyone who follows Formula 1 also follows MotoGP, and there is no-one who only follows one category, but has no interest in the other. That guy who lived down the hall from me in college and loved MotoGP whilst hating Formula 1 must have been a freak of nature.

I wouldn’t mind a race in France, Turkey or Austria. I just don’t see them doing that many back-to-back races (in fact I don’t want them to), they should move Hungary back a week, then pair Silverstone and Germany together and pair the France/Turkey race with Hungary.

What I donâ€™t understand is why heaven and earth is being moved to keep 20 races on the calendar, given that the workload for the teams is so heavy already.

The teams did twenty races this year, and didn’t complain about it at all. In fact, they’ve given twenty races as the ideal number for the championship. It may not be as ideal sixteen or eighteen races, but no doubt they’re getting some kind of compensation for it.

So long as the teams are happy to do twenty races, I see no reason why that should change.

No, 16 is fine for me. What happens when you have 20 races is you don’t get to narrow it down to the truly best circuits. There should be at least two of the newer circuits (Yeongam, Buddh, Austin, etc.) removed.

Red Bull Ring makes perfect sense. They surely already have the money, whereas France and Turkey will no doubt need government funding.

Also, F1 needs a short track. Shorter tracks mean more laps in a race, more traffic for the drivers and therefore more action for the fans in the grandstands. I don’t understand why F1 seems to favour those mid-length tracks…

I hope it is the return of the Turkish GP, it’s my favourite F1 grade circuit by bar. Almost it’s pretty cool how the German GP will coincide with the FoS as I will most likely try and get to Goodwood next year.